DAVID Exaggerate, uncle! Why, if they hadn't the use of their legs, their arms danced on the counterpane; if their arms couldn't dance, their hands danced from the wrist; and if their hands couldn't dance, they danced with their fingers; and if their fingers couldn't dance, their heads danced; and if their heads were paralysed, why, their eyes danced--God never curses so utterly but you've _something_ left to dance with! [_He moves toward his desk._] VERA [_Infected with his gaiety_] You'll tell us next the beds danced. DAVID So they did--they shook their legs like mad! VERA Oh, why wasn't I there? [_His eyes meet hers at the thought of her presence._] DAVID Dear little cripples, I felt as if I could play them all straight again with the love and joy jumping out of this old fiddle. [_He lays his hand caressingly on the violin._] MENDEL [_Gloomily_] But in reality you left them as crooked as ever. DAVID No, I didn't. [_He caresses the back of his uncle's head in affectionate rebuke._] I couldn't play their bones straight, but I played their brains straight. And hunch-_brains_ are worse than hunch-_backs_.... [_Suddenly perceiving his letter on the desk_] A letter for _me_! [_He takes it with boyish eagerness, then hesitates to open it._] VERA [_Smiling_] Oh, you may open it! DAVID [_Wistfully_] May I? VERA [_Smiling_] Yes, and quick--or it'll be _Shabbos_! [_DAVID looks up at her in wonder._] MENDEL [_Smiling_] You read your letter! DAVID [_Opens it eagerly, then smiles broadly with pleasure._] Oh, Miss Revendal! Isn't that great! To play again at your Settlement. I _am_ getting famous. VERA But we can't offer you a fee. MENDEL [_Quickly sotto voce to VERA_] Thank you! DAVID A fee! I'd pay a fee to see all those happy immigrants you gather together--Dutchmen and Greeks, Poles and Norwegians, Welsh and Armenians. If you only had Jews, it would be as good as going to Ellis Island. VERA [_Smiling_] What a strange taste! Who on earth wants to go to Ellis Island? DAVID Oh, I love going to Ellis Island to watch the ships coming in from Europe, and to think that all those weary, sea-tossed wanderers are feeling what _I_ felt when America first stretched out her great mother-hand to _me_! VERA [_Softly_] Were you very happy? DAVID It was heaven. You must remember that all my life I had heard of America--everybody in our town had friends there or was going there or got money orders from there. The earliest game I played at was selling off my toy furniture and setting up in America. All my life America was waiting, beckoning, shining--the place where God would wipe away tears from off all faces. [_He ends in a half-sob._] MENDEL [_Rises, as in terror_] Now, now, David, don't get excited. [_Approaches him._]